When my dogs don't listen to me - here's the reason why!

I’ve been thinking about how my dogs understand me…or don’t as the case often is! I use so many different words to communicate the same thing - how confusing this must be for one that does not speak English let alone a dog who tries so hard to do what we say to please their Leader.

Take my pack - there are so many different words meaning recall - come back to me…come here now…I mean it come over here….right now….get here…and the list goes on and on! They have all been trained to recall with the word “Come” said only once and by itself with a firm yet welcoming tone! But it’s way too easy being a human to use different words, it’s natural as I think well if that didn’t work then I’ll try something else to see if they can understand me, or I’ll repeat myself and escalate my tone ...OK I get louder to shout level :-) So this totally confuses my pack, should they recall when I command “Come” or “come here” or even “Come Come Come” so only responding when I say it 3 times in a row or when said loudest - you see the tone of the word changes it’s context - the meaning to a dog!

I have spent a week observing what I say, and how I say it …fascinating and trust me really hard to stick to “keep it simple” and only use specific consistent commands….and I’m a Student Dog Psychologist! Try it even if only for a short while and imagine how your dog is supposed to know what is meant - they just don’t string words together to have a different meaning, or prefix words with “No” meaning don’t do that e.g. “No pull” means “No” then “Pull” so my Dobey Max would stop then begin to pull as instructed!! Imagine then how a sentence must seem to a dog - baffling :-)

So how do my pack keep up with me - they read my energy and body language to figure out what I mean, they use trial and error - if their response doesn’t get a reward then they try another one, thankfully my dogs are like most dogs- very clever at learning to understand us. Oh and if they don’t think I am serious and will follow-through they will ignore me - then guess that’s the same between humans too! I mean imagine how a human "going on and on" at their dog must sound - not only like "Doggie nagging" but totally incomprehensible too!

What have my dogs taught me? To think before I speak, which is a lesson I often need to apply in all walks of life, I’m a typical human "language repeater" and talk about the same things in many ways to get my point across which can work with humans but not dogs! Actually suspect it can be irritating for other humans too…but hey I’m only human :-)